Anki

Positive things first: this is a reasonably fast read with a number of amusing parts to it, and plenty of snappy dialog. That said, I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much if I had purchased it instead of borrowing it from the library.

Ultimately, it was too much like a sitcom in a number of ways: overly zany and/or stereotypical characters getting up to improbable hijinks and into awkward situations, but everything turns out fine at the end, wrapped up nice and neatly with an accompanying laugh track to send us off into a happily ever after. All the relationships felt rushed, shallow, or both, and there were several instances of awkward head hopping between viewpoint characters that made things hard to follow.

I think that as long as a reader goes into the story expecting a sitcom (and all the attendant improbabilities that go with that territory), then enjoyment can be had here. But if one wants something with depth and substance one should probably look elsewhere.

I received an advance reader copy of this book back in 2012, but it sat on my shelves for eight years before being read. I am trying not to kick myself too much over this fact, and I plan on picking up a finished copy of the book (the ARC does not include the index, and the end notes, while present, lack page number references).

While I have been familiar with the novels of Alexandre Dumas for years, I knew little about his life, and nothing about the life of his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. This excellently researched biography and history helps fill in those gaps. Drawing from letters and memoirs and records of the time, Reiss pulls together a fascinating narrative honoring this incredible man.

I like fairy tale retellings, and I enjoy Regency romances, so I was excited when I heard about the Once Upon a Regency series. Each book will be drawing from a different fairy tale for inspiration; this one uses Snow White. Because of my familiarity with the fairy tale, I cannot say there were any real surprises in this story, but I wasn't reading for shocking revelations and twists. I wanted a pleasant, enjoyable, and entertaining read, and this delivered admirably. I enjoyed seeing how the various fairy tale elements were woven into the story, and also guessing how things would tie together.

3.5/5

I got this ebook as a Free Friday title on my Nook back in 2013 (it sounded at least marginally interesting, and hey, it was free), then it sat unread until now. Let's just say I am glad I didn't spend any money to get this book, and I would really like about half of the six hours I spent reading it back. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but I felt a fair amount of disappointment when I was done.

From the cover art and cover copy I was expecting a cozier sort of police procedural with a foodie bent, which is why I picked up the book in the first place. Well, there is a police procedural type thing going on, and there is foodie stuff, but they did not play well together in creating a satisfying narrative. Rather it felt that the novel lurched and jerked from one narrative line to the other with very little to connect them apart from overlapping characters (and the victim being found in the walk-in cooler of a French restaurant).

French words are sprinkled haphazardly throughout the novel, but instead of helping to set the tone they were mostly just annoying to have to puzzle through. On top of the seemingly random French sat a plethora of “author words” (more obscure words that basically show the author knows how to use a thesaurus, chosen without regard to characters and tone of the story) alongside a hefty dollop of casual profanity/vulgarity.

I was invested enough in the story to want to know how things ended, but when we do find out who stuffed the victim into the walk-in cooler of the fancy French restaurant we are told in probably the most boring way possible, and the culprit and motive feel practically random. There was no real foreshadowing, no information trail for the reader to follow. Poirot and Holmes may be able to get away with being the smartest person in the room and revealing the train of thought they used to solve the mystery; looking back on their stories you can see the clues laid out for the reader to pick up on. Capucine uses off-page information to “cleverly” pull everything together, and it just falls flat.

I did learn some things about French cuisine while reading this novel, but the main thing I learned is that I doubt I will pick up any more books by this author.

I have thoughts and feelings about this book that I am still trying to piece together. It wasn't bad, but I cannot say it was good either. More later, once I have thought about things more.

I really enjoyed this collection of essays about the reading life. So many of them resonated with me, particularly the one entitled ‘Bookworm Problems' (where I started looking around for the cameras a few times because how else would she know how to describe my bookish situation?), and others got me thinking more about my own reading life and history. Definitely a collection I will come back to read again.

A book on plagues through the ages seems like it would, by its very nature, be incredibly depressing (and/or dry), but Jennifer Wright made every chapter absolutely fascinating, and her tone is such that I found myself laughing on multiple occasions. She never mocks the victims of the plagues, but she does poke at human foibles and failings, as well as highlighting the amazing things that people did when confronted with these various diseases. I really enjoyed the audio, and I am very glad to have modern medicine, clean water, and a knowledge that neither onions nor crushed emeralds are effective cures for what ails you.

I have so many feelings about this book it is hard to sort them all out in my head. It was an amazing read with so many layers and moving pieces to it. And I know I will definitely need to reread it because there are going to be things I missed in my first read through. I need to let everything settle first, though. And I am okay with that.

So, I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. First, the positives: this is a sweet story that provides an accessible example of what the KonMari method is and how to apply it in your life. There isn't really any new information here per se, but presenting the information in a story format helps readers see how the KonMari method works. Having examples like this can be incredibly useful, and like I said, the story is cute.

That said, I cannot understand why the publisher decided to flip this book to read left-to-right. This is 2017, not 1997, and manga is mainstream and popular enough that reading a “backwards book” (right-to-left format) isn't exactly a barrier to entry. It wasn't terrible reading this flipped, but the art felt subtly off. Also...they didn't flip everything. Some panels are unflipped, and the floorplan of Chiaki's apartment at the beginning of the book is also unflipped (and it's obvious; you see her full apartment a page later). I want to get a copy of the Japanese version to get a better idea of exactly what all was changed.

I'm glad this manga is available in English. I'm glad I own it, even as I question the formatting decisions of the publisher. I wish it were available in English in an unflipped format.

I wanted to like this book, or at least appreciate it. Seeing the trailer for the movie and reading the description for the book made it sound like an interesting near-future thriller. I still have hopes for the movie, but not see-it-in-theaters level hopes, more like catch-it-on-Netflix ones.

The book is at least competently written, but I still gave up on it halfway through and skimmed a bit near the end to get some closure. I just couldn't care enough any more, and not even making snarky notes on my bookmark index card was helping. The social commentary was too ham-fisted, none of the characters were really likeable, and I found myself wanting to tell all of them to take a long walk off a short pier wearing the finest in cement footwear.

I picked up this book because I knew Lora Innes did the art, and I really enjoy her other work. The art did not disappoint, but I found the story being told to be disjointed and somewhat frustrating. This is a tie-in to the television series of the same name, and as I read I felt there was an expectation that I should already have a vested interest in and knowledge of the characters showing up. As I have not seen the television series, said existing interest and knowledge were not present for me. All told, I would say this does not serve as as particularly good introduction point to the franchise, which is a shame.

I had the privilege of being a beta reader for this book, and it was an excellent read with lots of interesting world-building and fun characters. I highly recommend it, and I look forward to seeing more books in this world.

My feelings about this adventure path are...mixed. There is definitely a lot of potential here, and I have enjoyed running it for my game group. At the same time, it really feels like it was rushed to production as the first adventure path for D&D 5th Edition. I noticed a number of omissions and errors (incorrectly labeled map areas, unlabeled areas, labeled areas with no corresponding descriptions, etc) that I think would have been caught had there been more time available in the publication cycle.

In hindsight I think I would have been better served by choosing something else for my first experience as a GM/DM. Now that I have run it once I think I have a better handle on it, and I do want to run it again for another group. With additional preparations on my part.

2.5 stars

Overall I would say I liked this book–there are a lot of interesting ideas, and Cassel is a decent narrator–but there were enough elements that rubbed me the wrong way that I am currently uncertain as to whether or not I will seek out the other books in the series. It shaded just a bit too negative for my tastes, in general.

This book goes back to the first person narrative style of the Percy Jackson books. It was a pretty quick read and I enjoyed the story and the characters. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series (and again, frustrated by the whole “read the book within a short period of time after it is published and you have to wait that much longer” element in play with new books). Luckily, there isn't a dreadful cliffhanger here, but more an element of anticipation that will hold me for the next year.

How to put this... Maggie for Hire is a very, very average sort of urban fantasy offering. There are some interesting ideas in the book and a number of amusingly snappy lines, but ultimately I was not impressed enough to want to read more in the series. Witty banter without real substance just isn't enough for me.

I am marking this as read, since I have read the one story in it that I definitely wanted to read. That being the Ilona Andrews novella set in the Kate Daniels universe. It was fun, and I am glad I was able to read it.

I will check out the other stories in the book, but they don't currently have nearly as much of a draw for me.

This is the second book in the Magical Cats mystery series, and overall I enjoyed it. The characters are entertaining, and the way the mystery was structured made a certain amount of sense. I would have liked to see a bit more of the cats, but you can't always get everything you want. I already have the third book in the series out from the library, and look forward to reading it.

Unfortunately, the copy-editing and proofreading of this book were both sub-par. This is probably due to the nature of the “serial cozy mystery” genre, which seems to have a focus on quick turnaround times for publication. The text of this book contains a lot of typos, most of the “missing an entire word” sort with a few of the “wrong homonym” variety cropping up here and there. While I know it is nearly impossible to catch all the typos within a manuscript, there is a big difference between missing one or two things and missing twenty or more that even a quick read-through should have caught.

Ultimately the typos did not affect my overall enjoyment of the story, but I think I would have been more disappointed had I purchased the book rather than borrowing it from my local library.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Unfortunately, I finished reading it, and it is the start of a series, and when one finishes the first book in a new series a mere ten days after it is published it stands to reason one must then wait (however impatiently) for the next book. So I shall wait, and keep my eyes peeled for news of the next book in the series.

This was a reread for me, and I am fairly certain the last time I read this book was at least fifteen years ago. All things considered it holds up pretty well, but it is definitely science fiction from the late 70s/early 80s.

I am not particularly shy when it comes to my general dislike of dystopian fiction. I tend to get angry when I read it, and since I read primarily for enjoyment and entertainment it makes little sense for me to seek out stories that do not provide those things. (There is also the fact that so much of the dystopian fiction I have read has strained my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point...that does not exactly recommend the genre to me.)

So with that in mind, based on the way people have shelved and tagged Partials on Goodreads and other book sites, I shouldn't like it. The thing is, while there are definite dystopian elements to this book, I would not classify it as dystopian fiction. It is much more a post-apocalyptic survival story, and that is how it is presented from the start. The dystopian elements are not the front and center focus of the story, and with that I find I can care about the characters. I think it not being in first person also helps with this.

Now I just need to find a print (or ebook) copy of the sequel to borrow.

I really enjoyed this book, but it took me far longer than I expected to read it.

I enjoyed these essays, but what continually struck me is just how different my life and cooking experiences are from the ones described in this book. I have never been to a butcher to purchase meat (I am not even quite sure where I would find a butcher in my area, though there must be at least one around). Many of the recipes call for cooking things “in the usual way”, but I am not even sure what the usual way would be. The recipes themselves are far more conversational than is typical in modern cookbooks.

I definitely would like to read it again, and try some of the recipes.

I had the great pleasure of being one of the proofreaders for this novel. The characters are entertaining, and the world is fascinating. Raneh's world feels believable and real, and I did not want to leave at the end of the book. I hope to read many more stories in this world moving forward.

I know I read this in elementary school, most likely before I was ten years old. And I'm sure I enjoyed reading it at the time. However, I remembered nothing of the book beyond the cover illustration and the cover copy text, so reading it now was basically like reading a new book.

I enjoyed reading this as an adult, but there were definitely parts that came across as...dated and a bit simplistic. Also, while I realize that the views expressed by various individuals in the book are very much representative of the time period in which the book is set, I found myself shaking my head more than once.

As other reviewers have commented, I would definitely want to have discussions with any children I gave this book to. There are a lot of good lessons to be learned, but there needs to be a good sense of context as well.